Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Art of Google

Google's Pollock imageOn January 28, the birthday of Jackson Pollock, Google featured Pollock on its search engine (see image at left). Google frequently changes their logo during special events and holidays. The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button that day sent visitors to a fun site where you can create your own Pollock image.

Google has been supportive of the arts with their logos. Google hosted a What if competition where they invited K-12 students to design their own Google logo. You can see the finalists' art here. You can see many other entries here. The logo featuring the event is below left. Google also hosted a contest for UK students called the "My Future" contest. Over 65,000 enteries were received. The winning logo was drawn by Claire Rammelkamp, a 14-year old. See her logo below right.

Google's What if logo Claire Rammelkamp's Google logo
Google has posted many other logos that commemorate the arts. Below left is a logo honoring the birthday of DaVinci. Lower right is the logo that honored MC Escher.
Google DaVinci Google Escher

Below left: Marc Chagall - Below Right: Architect Walter Gropius

Google Chagall Google Gropius
Below left: Joan Miró - Below Right: Piet Mondrian
Google Miro Google Mondrian
Below left: Edvard Munch- Below Right: Claude Monét
Google Edward Munch Google Monet
Below left: Marc Chagall - Below Right: Vincent Van Gogh
Google Picasso Google Van Gogh
Below left: Diego Valazquez- Below Right: Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Bottom left: Dr. Seuss, Bottom right, Norman Rockwell.

Google Valezquez
Dr. Seuss

Google Frank Lloyd Wright
google's norman rockwell
Below: Michelangelo Buonarroti (I didn't want to reduce the size because it would lose a lot of detail.)
google Michelangelo
Below: Cartoonist Dilbert
Google Dilbert
google popeye
Above: This cartoon was in honor of E.C. Segar, the creator of Popeye. Popeye was 115 years old that day.

google comix
Asterix Comics birthday
google comicon google logo art
Above left: In honor of ComicCon In honor of Wallace Gromit animated cartoon


You might be asking who at Google creates these wonderful logos. The artist is Dennis Hwang, a 31-year old Korean artist now from Knoxville, Tennessee. His teachers did not appreciate his art when he was a student at Bearden High School. He has moved up in the world and is now the Google's head webmaster. Designing logos is a small part of his job.

How did Dennis get his start at Google? He had an internship there when in college. The founders knew he was an art student and gave him the chance to design a logo. They loved his work so much they have used him ever since. Says Dennis, "Usually, artists' birthdays are the ones I spend the most effort on, like Monet's birthday." [1]

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